Editor’s View: Jewellers in the Argyll Arcade can’t afford to let standards slip
The Glasgow jewellery retail scene is unlike anything I have ever come across before. While I had heard a lot about the famous Argyll Arcade, and I knew it was packed entrance to exit with jewellers, naively or not, I had no idea no other type of store would be in sight. The Argyll Arcade is literally packed with jewellery retailers from beginning to end. It’s phenomenal. But, what is perhaps most extraordinary is that nearly every jeweller in the Arcade has more than one store. Take Chisholm Hunter for instance, the national jewellery retailer has six boutiques in the covered L-shaped space, and has announced the opening of a seventh next year. Additionally, multiple jeweller Fraser Hart has four, Laings has three, and James Porter has two, and most the big multiples have at least one presence in the area, including Ernest Jones, H Samuel and Mappin & Webb. While our feature on Glasgow will touch on why the stores are there, how business has been, and what each jeweller